Isle Royale Forums

Our Thoughts for us Forty somethings was to check off seeing a live Moose of the wifes Bucket List. So we started to plan a trip to IR we are moderatly in shape and have been site camping for years also a (eagle scout). A hurdle I had to consider was my Wife has Fibromyalgia which is under control mostly, but need to keep in the back of my mind. I have up dated my Gear for this trip and we have been on a few test runs everything works. My thoughts on the route Are

aug 20 travel to Copper Harbor
aug 21 Boat to Rock Harbor and bang around town
aug 21 Boat to Chippewa Harbor on voyager 2 and hike to Lake Richie for the night
aug 22 Hike Richie to West Chickenbone spend the night
aug 24 look for Moose
aug 25 Hike to Moskey Basin
aug 26 Hike to Daisy Farm or 3 mile
aug 27 Hike to Rock Harbor

Dont see much info on the Lake Richie camp site other than what the park service provides is this site ok for a night ?? I want to make this a pleasureable for my Wife because i would like to do a trip a year to IR to get my Hike on.

Speaking from one newbie to another and one eagle to another. Went there first time last year with our Troop.

*If time permits hike the Scoiville Trail, nice and scenic takes about and hour round trip before jumping on the boat and moving to Chippewa Harbor.
*If either of you have bad wheels make sure you have internal frame packs, I messed my leg up on the 3rd day out coming down from Desor-pack shifted and had to be boatlifted out from Todd Harbor
*If you can make it to Todd Harbor , I would stay there instead of Chickenbone, I get the impression that it is not a nice campground very buggy from what the scouts stated after I got boatlifted
*It bears repeating bring a headnet, only one scout brought one and at a couple of the sites you wer eating bugs along with your dinner and breakfast

Have fun and I hope your wife enjoys it. I myself cannot wait until I get an opportunity to go back again!

I'm a paddler, not a backpacker, but it's sounds like a good plan to me. A couple thoughts:

Rock Harbor: "Bang around town" made me laugh! The hike out to Scoville Pt is about 4 miles round trip. Beautiful shoreline and a good warm up (maybe see a moose). Could also rent a canoe and paddle around a couple hours.

Chippewa Harbor: I'd spend a night there, it's one of my favorites. Explore the old "school house" (never was a school) and hike to Mason Lake (maybe see a moose). Next day go on to Chickenbone, or stay at Richie.
Depending on how your wife is doing, you can skip Chickenbone if you need to and be doing only a couple miles a day--I think Moskey to Daisy Farm would be the farthest. But you don't have to stick to an exact itinerary, so you can play it be ear as you go.

Moskey Basin is also one of the best campgrounds. All are great, but Daisy Farm and Three Mile are the busiest. However, there are evening talks given at Daisy Farm, check out the schedule. We heard/talked with one of the wolf/moose researchers there which was very interesting.

Moose: Just understand there's no guarantee! Sometimes I think the harder you look the less likely you are to see one.

"Hike to Copper Harbor" Let us know how that goes! LOL.

Enjoy and have a great trip! (you will)

troop402miamisburg wrote:*If you can make it to Todd Harbor , I would stay there instead of Chickenbone, I get the impression that it is not a nice campground very buggy from what the scouts stated after I got boatlifted
*It bears repeating bring a headnet, only one scout brought one and at a couple of the sites you wer eating bugs along with your dinner and breakfast

Stay at WEST Chickenbone if you go there. East Chickenbone is one of the least favorite sites.
I always bring a headnet and never used it, but I always will bring it! The campgrounds on Lake Superior will be less buggy in general.

With your wife’s health concerns you might consider planning to make 2 or 3 different camp grounds on Lake Superior your base camps. Then plan day hikes in and around each area. Most of the camp grounds on Lake Superior have three sided Adirondack type shelters with screened in fronts. For many people they are much more comfortable than back packing tents (wood floors). The maximum number of consecutive nights varies with each campground (typically 1, 2 or 3 nights max for non islet sites). Also, the number of shelters varies greatly by campground. They are first come first served. There are no shelters at any inland campground. Here a link to NPS info. See the chart below the map on page 6:

http://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/u ... e_2010.pdf

The moose population has been quite low for the last several years. I have read trip reports from people that have hiked over much of the island recently and not seen any. I do not know which areas are the best bet but others will chime I’m sure with more up to date info. I have seen postings here that would make me think that Washington Creek, near Windigo, would be a good bet (3 nights, 10 shelters). Hang around the watering spots at dawn and dusk. You could boat to Windigo by Voyageur and spend a couple days. Huginin Cove is close (3 nights, 0 shelters). Daisy Farm is the largest camp ground and has the most shelters (3 nights, 16 shelters) and often very busy. There are several day hike opportunities from Daisy Farm. Moskey Basin (3 nights, 6 shelters), McCargoe Cove (3 nights, 6 shelters) and Chippewa Harbor (3 nights, 4 shelters) are all nice and have shelters. Pick up and drop off at these Voyageur accessible sites is by reservation only.

Moose encounters are hard to predict, but Washington Creek should be a safe bet. I didn't see any at Rock Harbor this year, despite looking faithfully in past moose encounter spots. Bear in mind that moose hate heat, and their definition of "heat" is pretty mild by human standards. So look for them in the cool of the day, at dawn and dusk or just after a rain. I saw six this year, so they're around; I saw two that no one else in my party saw thanks to my habit of early morning moose patrol. But just because you go look for them doesn't necessarily make you a success, either. During my first service trip to IR with IRNHA, I spent a week at Chippewa and never saw a moose there once, despite my daily early morning moose patrols and frequent after-supper treks to Lake Mason. The last morning we were there, while I was out on moose patrol, a cow came strolling through the group camp site, so all the slumber bunnies scored a moose while I missed out.